Agri-training yields higher earning

BAYBAY CITY, June 6-- The Leyte provincial government has already trained 119 organizations under the "More Income in the Countryside Program (MIC-P)" of the local government in the past four years.

The newest batch which completed were organizations from the villages of Bitanhuan and Gacat in this city with a combined membership of 70.

The MIC-P project involves the use of compact farming for high value vegetables and fruit crops, as well as livestock production. The program incorporates disaster risk reduction training for farmers to deter loses during calamities.

 Farmers are trained for several months on compact farming and livestock production. They are then formed into an organization wherein they create a compact farm with eight plots to cultivate high-value vegetables and fruits.

 After compact farming, farmers undergo training on hog production, bee farming, and egg production. 
 

“This program does not only focus on agriculture, but also aims to address malnutrition problem of children in the community,” Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said on Tuesday.

Petilla urged groups to open their farm for tourists like in the upland Villa Corazon village in Jaro town, where residents reap the benefits both from farming and tourism. 

Villa Corazon village is the pilot site of the MIC-P, practicing the integrated and diversified organic farming approach. The village has been welcoming an average of 300 tourists every week. 

“This program is good especially the coconut farmers to have other source of income aside from depending on products derived from coconut,” said Baybay City Mayor Carmen Cari.

In the first harvest of Bitanhuan Vegetable Farmers Association, they earned PHP8,952 while the Gakat Farmers Association generated PHP10,350.

Cari said that the vegetables produced by MIC-P completers would ensure food security alleviate poverty. (Roel T. Amazona/PNA)